


His Kingdom Come

by neko11lover



Category: Scrubs (TV)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 23:50:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6350575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neko11lover/pseuds/neko11lover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Growing older has been both cruel and kind to Bob Kelso.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Kingdom Come

**Author's Note:**

> Something I wrote back in 2013 for Imagination: Unleashed's Writing Challenge #48. The prompt was _wrought from selling my soul_. With spoilers from the series. Also, I did the proper thing and considered that season 9 never existed.

Growing older has been both cruel and kind to Bob Kelso. His retirement had opened up too much time, and given the life he has built, there really wasn't that much to do but think.

 

It’s something he hates, when he catches himself worrying. One of those things is when he thinks about death, and everything that comes with it. He thinks about the eulogies he’d get, the type of coffin he’d have, what his insurance would cover, who’d Enid have left if his son never decide to come home from his already five-year-long honeymoon with his new drug-addled lover. It leaves him unsettled and it makes him think at the end: was it all worth it?

 

“You’re looking tired there, Bobbo.”

 

Bob looks up to Perry Cox’s smirk, train of thought broken.

 

“What? Don’t tell me you forgot my weekly community service?” He raises the beer bottles he has in his hands, before settling without permission onto the empty lawn chair next to Bob’s. “Or has the great big A finally gotten to you?”

 

“You make me wish it had,” Bob retorts, and this makes Perry laugh. He smiles to himself as he drinks his beer.

 

_Not yet. Not yet._

 

-

 

He surprises Sacred Heart with a donation. A rather generous one, too.

 

“Don’t tell me you’re easing your way into the board,” Perry warns, “or God help me, I’ll---”

 

“I’m not,” Bob cuts him off. “Does a man need a reason to do something good around here?”

 

“If the man’s named Bob Kelso, well, _yeah_.”

 

“Oh, suck it up and take it, Perry. I’ve been in your shoes before and the economy wasn’t even as bad as what you have today. So if I were you, I’d take donations like this with a smile on my face.” Bob signs the check, and hands it to him. “Now _git_ , before I change my mind.”

 

Perry stares at him for a moment, before taking it.

 

“Well, gosh. I… I’m actually speechless.”

 

“A ‘thank you’ would suffice.”

 

Perry grimaces, before giving Bob and awkward pat on the shoulder.

 

“You’ve at least saved yourself from the worst circle of hell,” Perry finally says, unable to choke the words out at first. With that, however, he transitions to, “Thanks, Bob. I appreciate this.”

 

-

 

He calls Ted and invites him for golf the next weekend. The man stammers and from his end of the phone, Bob can see him sweating through his suit.

 

“Bring the wife, if you want,” Bob says with a sigh, knowing that it makes Ted feel a little more secure. He confirms this when Ted lets out a relieved sigh. “Enid’s been saying that she needs some fresh air.”

 

The phone call ends with Ted’s confirmation.

 

He adds that to his schedule book, before taking up the phone again. By the way things are going now, he’ll have four or five more Saturdays of golf with the old guys to look forward to.

 

-

 

He finds himself attending one of JD’s and Christopher’s Christmas parties for the first time.

 

“ _You’re_ the one married to Turk?”

 

“Sir,” Carla reminds him, “you were at our wedding! And you even ate all the bacon-covered shrimps!”

 

“Was I?” Bob muses. He turns to the blonde doctor. “Weren’t Dorian and Turkleton married?”

 

“ _I’m_ married to JD!” Elliot replies, her voice raising to a high, whistly pitch.

 

Bob chuckles at the frazzled woman. “I was joking, Dr. Reed.”

 

Elliot huffs, blowing her bangs out of her face. “Well, sir, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.” As soon as she says this, the two friends burst out of a room wearing similar sweaters. Elliot palms her face and excuses herself to get some punch.

 

He plays them a song, as a way of apology for Elliot. He receives more gifts that he’s had before during that Christmas, including a sweater similar to the younger doctors’. Perry gives him a sympathetic look, and the four of them pose for the camera. He pretends to scowl for the heck of it.

 

-

 

He goes back to Vietnam. He revisits his youth, unearths old memories. The war changes people, and it has changed him, and during the month he stays there, he feels like he stands at a crossroads of his before, and his after. He reunites with a part of him that he’s forgotten, and reminds himself that he was a good guy, before he was bad.

 

-

 

“Anything else you need, Dr. Kelso?”

 

Bob looks up from his book to face a nurse. Her face is unfamiliar, and he gives her a smile. Perry Cox follows soon after.

 

“I’m fine.” He nods a greeting to his old colleague.

 

“Looking peachy, Bob,” Perry says, his voice quiet as he walks to his side, looking at his chart. “Seems your stats are stable, and you’ve rested enough. We’ll release you tomorrow if you think you can.”

 

“Great.”

“Old horse still running strong.”

 

“You bet.”

 

Perry gives him another tight smile, before he turns to leave the room. Bob closes his eyes. Now alone, he allows the thoughts to come: the good, the bad, the everything in between. This time, there are no apologies, no excuses.

 

At the end, he smiles.

 

**fin**


End file.
